To keep you updated on the go, we highlight a free medical app each month!
Librarian reviewers from Saskatchewan Health Authority and Alberta Health Services consider the audience and purpose of the apps, as well as highlighting additional features:
Our complete grading criteria is embedded in the review.
Note: Reviewers are not healthcare professionals and don't appraise the quality of any recommendations within the app. Reviews are not meant as endorsements.
| Case Medical Research | ||||||||
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Image Source: Case Medical Research, Apple App Store. Retrieved on February 26, 2019 from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/case-medical-research/id1049999731?mt=8
| App developer |
Company Name: Kernel Networks, Inc. Avikk Ghose, CEO Ryan Idryo, VP of Engineering, Eric Kowalchyk, VP of Product Management, Ricardo Marquez, VP of UX and Design |
| Contact |
E-mail: support@casemedicalresearch.com |
| Devices |
iPhone/iPad/iPod touch https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/case-medical-research/id1049999731?mt=8 Last updated (as per App Store listing):February 14, 2019 Android Smartphones & Tablets https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.kernelnetworks.casejournals&hl=en_US Last updated (as per Google Play listing): February 14, 2019 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Size | 17 MB (iOS) 12 MB (Android) |
| Specialties / Disciplines |
No specialty Clinicians and researchers |
| Comments |
No specific specialty listed |
| Stated purpose |
“Case scans thousands of medical journals (NEJM, Lancet, PubMed, etc) and YouTube to bring you the latest in a disease, drug, gene, pathway, protein and more. “ (iTunes store listing) We use the NIH's MeSH medical terminology database so you can follow research across 274,482 topics. For example, an oncologist can follow acute myeloid leukemia, tumor suppressor protein p53 and targeted therapy midostaurin. Any research matching your topics will be displayed in your feed in real-time.” (iTunes listing) |
| Notes |
According to the app listing, Case Medical Research allows the user to: (iTunes listing) Read, Watch, Listen (view abstracts in 100 languages; watch medical research videos; listen to audio transcriptions of abstracts) Search, Save, Share (access 19,000,000+ journal articles via PubMed and other sources; search via Altmetric score, citation count, publication type; save and read articles offline Personalized Notifications (weekly updates on new research matching area of interest; drug alerts and device approvals; search alerts for specific search queries) Certain journals may require a subscription to access the full article on the publisher's site. Open-access articles are freely available in Case.” -Retrieved from Google Play Store listing |
| Part 1: Editorial committee, content updates, and evidence grading |
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The Case Medical Research website contains complete biographies, including accreditations and career backgrounds, of the 3 co-founders. With an easy-to-navigate interface, entries are clearly dated, and the app as a whole is updated on a regular basis. According to the app listing, users can read abstracts in 100 languages, watch medical research videos, and listen to audio transcripts of abstracts, while also saving favourite articles and establishing personalized notifications with just a few taps on their mobile device. As the app functions more like a web crawler, bringing forth the latest research in a variety of disciplines, a ranking or grading system is not evident. |
| Part 2: Source and authorship information for 3 entries |
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This app is intended for searching over merely browsing. As such, a specific search query must be entered first. A citation list if provided after clicking on DOI entry (provided full-text of the article is available), however this is not evident from the entry. Since Case Medical Research functions as a web crawler, a wide variety of evidence source types are included, including systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, cohort studies, textbooks, reports, and conference presentations. Further, authors of each entry are listed under a separate View Authors section. While an account is required to use the app, this does have the added benefit of tracking user activity (articles viewed), setting up notifications (via e-mail or text alerts), and specifying language (up to 100 languages possible for audio abstracts) |
| Organization of information |
The app has an easy-to-navigate, intuitive organization. The home page provides the following links: Latest Research, subdivided into Latest Videos and Latest Articles As the app encourages searching as well as browsing, entries retrieved from a keyword search include:
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| Navigation | It is relatively straightforward to navigate through the app’s Latest Research feature, or to customize an individual searching experience (specifying search topics) |
| Extras |
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Internet connection required for use: Yes; Text search field: Yes; Browsable content by subject: Yes; Advertisements: No; Pop-up advertisements: No; In-app purchases: No
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No additional features, other than the Search Alerts and Customization options. |
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